Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed once blasted Barack Obama as the wrong choice who delivered little change, yet the two are now set to share a Detroit stage.
Fox News reported that a 2012 HuffPost op-ed by Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed is back in circulation just as he prepares to appear with former President Barack Obama at an Oct. 24 campaign rally in Detroit.
The timing is awkward. El-Sayed spent years scolding Obama from the left. Now he needs the former president’s star power on the Michigan ballot.
Obama posted on social media that he looks forward to the stop. He named El-Sayed, Democratic governor candidate Jocelyn Benson, and other Democrats on the ticket.
"Looking forward to being in Detroit on 10/24 to campaign for Jocelyn Benson, Abdul El-Sayed and Democrats up and down the ballot in Michigan"
El-Sayed won the Democratic Senate nomination on Aug. 5, 2026, after a primary fight with Rep. Haley Stevens. Obama stayed out of that primary and still has not issued a formal endorsement. The joint appearance is the closest public alignment yet.
Days after Obama won a second term, El-Sayed published a scathing HuffPost piece. He said he had voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012. He also said progressives had settled for the lesser option.
"But I have to say now what I’ve been holding in throughout his campaign and what I think all of us have to admit: Obama was not the right choice, he just wasn’t the wrong one."
He accused Obama of failing on the economy, civil liberties, and the gap between rich and poor. He wrote that young voters who bought “hope and change” still could not find good work.
"I realize that I have little hope because there has been less change."
El-Sayed also claimed police had eroded his freedom as a Muslim American and that inequality had only grown sharper. He framed the reelection as no real progressive win.
The New York Post detailed a longer pattern. In the same 2012 essay, El-Sayed charged that Obama “perpetuated war, violated our civil liberties, [and] deported more people from our shores than any other president before him.” He returned to the theme in later years.
In 2020 he argued the country was not better off eight years after Obama’s first election. He tied that record to the rise of Donald Trump. The critique was consistent: Obama had been too centrist for the progressive wing.
After his primary win, El-Sayed publicly highlighted a private phone call with Obama. The call was framed as a warm contact. The resurfaced op-ed now sits beside that outreach and the scheduled joint rally.
His campaign did not immediately answer questions about the 2012 essay or his present view of Obama’s legacy. The silence leaves the old words standing on their own.
El-Sayed has run as a progressive who wants larger government, Medicare for all, tuition-free higher education, lower housing costs, and an end to corporate tax carve-outs. Those positions sit to Obama’s left. The 2012 essay shows he once treated Obama’s record as a disappointment on peace, prosperity, and civil liberties.
Party unity is already strained in the Michigan race. More than 400 Jewish Democrats have backed Republican Mike Rogers, citing worries over El-Sayed’s allies. A high-profile Obama appearance is meant to paper over fractures. The old essays make that harder.
Obama spoke at the dedication of his presidential center in Chicago on June 18, 2026. He is now set to stand with the same progressive who once called his reelection a rock rather than a victory.
El-Sayed’s own words from 2012 remain plain. He said progressives who cared about peace, prosperity, civil liberties, and the country’s future got no real win that night. He said inequality accelerated. He said the economy stagnated for his peers.
"We really like the idea of Obama... let’s be clear, for progressives who care about peace, prosperity, civil liberties and the future of our country, Obama’ reelection last night was no victory. It was the rock we chose over the hard place."
Those lines were not private gripes. They were published for a national audience. They also tracked later attacks in 2017 and 2020 on Obama’s “centrist” course.
Republicans have already kept pressure on El-Sayed in Michigan. JD Vance hit him over comments linking criticism of Sharia law to white supremacy. The Senate contest is nationalized. A joint rally with Obama will draw more attention to every past statement.
Obama’s social media note treats El-Sayed as a standard Democrat worth the trip. El-Sayed’s earlier writing treated Obama as a progressive letdown who still beat Mitt Romney. Voters can read both records side by side.
The Detroit event is scheduled for Oct. 24. Benson and other Michigan Democrats are also on the bill. The former president’s presence is meant to boost the ticket. The 2012 op-ed, and the later rebukes, remain part of the public file.
Progressives spent years demanding purity tests from their own leaders. When the nominee needs a marquee name, the old purity talk gets filed away, and voters notice.